The Usurper's Secrets
by Oly Chic
Summary: (G1/Comic) One Earth month after an attack and into their relationship, Prowl reveals his conflictions to Jazz over learning about the death of his sparker, Blacksmoke. Prowl isn't the only one upset, though. Blacksmoke was one of Jazz's underground Ops mechs and the circumstances surrounding his death suggest trouble inside Special Ops. **Sequel w/ short recap inside
1. Chapter 1

******Chapter Start A/N Section:**

***I do not own Transformers. That belongs to the all-powerful Hasbro. Blacksmoke is mine, though.***

This is a sequel to "Why you're the way you are". For this chapter you don't really need to (re-)read the whole WYTWYR (as I call it) story if you're not sure you want to. I warn you, my writing style changed significantly since I started that story. I'm thinking I may re-write that story after this one, paticularly since there's a issue some had with the storyline (rightfully so). Here's the relevant recap (spoiler alert if that wasn't obvious):

_When Prowl was young his sparker, Blacksmoke, left the family after his temper got the better of him in the aftermath of an attack that left Prowl's carrier in the hospital. Prowl never heard from him again, which left him angry for a long time. Eventually that firey anger turned into a sort of cold anger and that lead to his cold demeanor._

_A really long time later a childhood friend of Prowl's died so Prowl and Smokescreen attended the funeral. Blacksmoke showed up at the funeral looking for the late mech's sparker, Juniper. Prowl, not realizing the changed mech before him was Blacksmoke, told him during an argument that Juniper was deactivated. During the funeral there was an attack on Iacon nearby, lead by Starscream. Near the end of battle Starscream knocked Prowl unconscious (in a roundabout way). He was about to deliver a killing blow but Blacksmoke jumped between them. Smokscreen helped the dying Blacksmoke, who confessed that he was Prowl's sparker and that he regretted leaving his family, and that at least he could finally be there for Prowl in some way._

_For a while Prowl didn't know that until Jazz told him, who learned it after Smokescreen told him. This left Prowl feeling very conflicted and confused. Unbeknownst to Prowl, Jazz knew more about Blacksmoke then he let on.  
_

This story starts out fluffy because they're enjoying the calm after the storm (first story), but isn't going to stay that way. It is sooo not going to be fluffy.

Cybertronian-Human Time Terminology: Klick - 1.2 min; Breem - 8.3 min; Joor - 6.5 hours; Orn - 13 days; Vorn - 83 years

Scene Changes: /*'*'*/ = Scene change on Earth; /~'~'~/ = Scene change on Cybertron

Thanks to Evil Ratchet for beta reading! BTW, if anyone sees any mistakes, it's not ER's fault. I made some pretty huge changes. Feel free to comment on any errors, constructive criticism, suggestions, etc! Or just send comments of love :3

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**Chapter 1**

"Ugh, if I have to read another one of Red Alert's reports about someone else's report, I'm gonna load a virus into his datapads so his reports suddenly disappear every time he saves!" Jazz's exasperated cry rang out, startling the few other mechs on the command center.

Hound looked up from the monitors with a befuddled expression. "What's wrong this time, Jazz?"

"Red submitted a report about your report. Ya'know, the one about the conditions of the surrounding environment within a 25 mile radius. It is a fantastic example of how to take a dull report about dirt and make it even worse to read. No offense, Hound, but I ain't a fan of dirt like you are."

Hound chuckled. "No worries, Jazz. I don't expect any of the officers to be to terribly concerned with that type of report unless there's some security, tactical, or safety issue they find. That's really the only purpose in those reports. They're just for the officers to determine if anything in our more immediate vicinity needs further attention. Given that Red Alert held onto the report for a while, I'm guessing he found some potential security issues. Like maybe one or two… or a hundred."

"'M not even going to count." Jazz grumbled as he scrolled through the list. "The report is prioritized and itemized, but then he also sub-itemized each item and prioritized those sub-items. Sometimes his reports make Prowl look lax. I mean, Prowl does the same thing but he primarily flags priorities instead of using the old numbering system. That's a lot easier to read."

Hound chuckled again before returning back to his screen. "Cheer up Jazz. It could be a painful report or a painful shot from an enemy because Red didn't read the reports."

"Yay…" Jazz said with fake but muted enthusiasm. He pretended to be excited at the technically-better option but he didn't want to bother the few relaxing off-duty Autobots nearby.

For him the most notable one was Prowl, or at least he suspected Prowl was still nearby. The SIC's scheduled shift ended a while ago but Jazz never saw Prowl emerge from his office. While Prowl was notorious for working longer than necessary, even he should have left his office a little bit ago. It had been approximately one Earth month since the attack on Prowl. Naturally Prowl fell swiftly back into his long and hard self-imposed work schedule.

There was one difference, though. Prior to the attack Prowl rarely accidently offlined in his office. Since then he'd done just that a little over anorn ago, nearly again half an orn ago, and possibly now. For some mechs, a couple of times would hardly mean anything more than maybe Prowl resumed his normal schedule too fast after taking a pretty hard beating. For Jazz it was a puzzling recurrence that he couldn't quite figure out. Prowl wasn't working himself into stasis, nor was ignoring Jazz or anyone else, really, but it was unusual. In fact, Prowl had spent more of his off-duty time with Jazz than before the attack. They were going pretty slow by Jazz's standards so it wasn't like they were doing anything to tire Prowl out.

"Jazz, what's with that loopy grin?"

"Uh wha?" Jazz snapped to attention at Hound's question. "I was just picturing what would happen to Red if I really did sabotage his reports." The lie flowed effortlessly for him, but any Special Ops mech should know how to do that. Jazz usually kept work and socializing separate, but Hound didn't need the details about the relationship between the SIC and TIC. Especially since _no _one knew the details and _no one_ was supposed to know.

They both knew that no one would betray them but the pair wasn't ready for it to be known. Besides that, it's also good practice to prevent gossip from spreading, especially if it involves officers developing an intimate relationship. If nothing else, someone could unintentionally mention something offhand near a hiding Decepticon spy. Still, all of that aside, they probably should inform Prime… eventually.

It still left him with a puzzle. Why does Prowl sometimes have trouble properly recharging when he's following his normal work routine and a new – and better routine, in Jazz's humble opinion – personal routine? It wasn't a big deal – yet. Jazz was keeping his optic out just in case.

"Ooh, Jazz…" Jazz stopped his musings and looked up at Bumblebee. "I'm here to take over."

'_Eh?_' Jazz checked the time and then whistled. "Well, I'll say one thing about Red's reports: it takes so much effort and concentration to read them that time flies right by!" With a cheery step Jazz bounced out of his chair and took an indirect path towards Prowl's office.

_Knock knock._

Jazz waited to see if there were sounds in case he startled Prowl, but it was Prowl who startled him. "Come in, Jazz," Prowl calmly announced. The door opened and revealed an obviously alert Prowl.

"How are you still functioning at a reasonable level? Your shift started well before mine!"

"I have been doing less physical work than you and this is a relatively light orn. I'm spending less energon and my mental capacity has not been stressed."

"Well, we're going to have to do something about that," Jazz said with a cheeky grin. He knew that kind of humor pushed the well-reserved Prowl's bounds, but Jazz was practicing how to and how frequently he could do so without getting in too much trouble. It was agreed upon anyways that Jazz could push somewhat since they moved at very different speeds, with Prowl moving at a relative glacial pace. They also agreed upon not talking about past relationships if it could be helped. Jazz suspected that was in part because he'd never known Prowl to be in a relationship. No one likes to admit it's been vorns since their last relationship or lay.

It had been a while for Jazz, too, by his standards. He had to modify his behavior when they became marooned on Earth. A mech couldn't have a casual relationship in a small group without potentially dangerous risks, such as being paired with a jilted ex-lover on a mission. It'd been long enough by Jazz's standards that he wanted to jump Prowl at every opportunity, but Jazz suspected he wouldn't achieve his end goal.

"Very… amusing… Jazz. I said my orn wasn't taxing; I didn't say it went well." Prowl said with a dry tone. However at the sight of Jazz's pouting face, Prowl quickly spoke up about what he wanted to do about it. "I could use a quiet evening. I think I will just relax in a more enjoyable area."

Immediately Jazz perked up. Prowl was a bit uptight about the possibility of slipping something around others, so they pre-established verbal codes, or phrases, to relay their plans or ideas. Even when they were alone Prowl was adamant that they continually use them so they never slip up. The phrase "relax in a more enjoyable area" was Prowl's code for spending time in Jazz's quarters. The verbal codes were meant to not raise suspension but the downside was that they had to be careful to not use the phrases incorrectly.

On the plus side it was a fun game to play while out in the open with their comrades. Sometimes Jazz would drop as many codes as he could in the command center or in the Rec Room to see how long it would take for Prowl to reciprocate or give him _the _look. Happily he was getting the former more than the later as their relationship continued.

"Yeah, I hear you there." That was Jazz's phrase for he'd be there alone and waiting for Prowl.

Jazz gave Prowl a big smile and Prowl returned his smile with a nod before sitting back down to clear his desk. With a cheery goodbye Jazz left Prowl's office and headed to the Rec Room, knowing Prowl would stick to the 10 breem rule. The tactician had determined that leaving 10 breems apart was long enough that no one questioned if their departures were related to each other.

A short walk later Jazz found the energon dispensers available in the Rec Room. Jazz, being both an officer and Special Ops, had the option of bigger energon rations. He didn't often use it because it was easy for others to see it as abuse and it could easily be abused. Back on Cybertron when the rations were a lot more stringent, Jazz started a brawl with another officer because said officer did abuse it and he practically flaunted it around the tired and hungry soldiers. It was a pretty memorable event because Ironhide jumped into the fight – quite enthusiastically too.

Still, Jazz knew that Prowl wouldn't pick up any since he wasn't 'expending much energon', which always meant that Prowl didn't think he required any either. A larger ration would allow him to convince Prowl to share some with him.

"Hungry, Jazz?"

Jazz turned to his side and was greeted by the sight of an annoyed Sunstreaker. "Yeah." He turned back to the still-dispensing energon.

After a moment Jazz notice from the corner of his optic that Sunstreaker was glaring at him. As soon as the dispenser finished, Jazz turned back to face him and carefully glancing over the yellow warrior. "That's a nasty scratch on your knee."

"It's not a scratch, it's a gouge. It's causing the servo in my knee to catch whenever I lean forward," came the gruff reply.

'_Ah_.' Sunstreaker's confrontational attitude was clearly a by-product of the physical stress to his knee. "What, Medbay shut down for the night?"

"No, but it only started to hurt half joor ago. Ratchet's been working intently with Grapple and a few others about a Medbay overhaul to get it to Ratchet's standards, now that we aren't racing to get off of Cybertron. A certain bossy CMO said that since it wasn't causing me much grief and therefor I could wait a joor while they hashed it out. That was, like, a joor and a half ago."

"Mmm," Jazz nodded his condolences. Ratchet always put other's health at the top of his list, but it sounded like Ratchet got carried away with demanding new medical equipment. In Ratchet's defense, it was a critical requirement that would likely save lives many times over, which was why Prime was allowing Ratchet to run away with it.

::Hey, Ratchet?:: Jazz sent the CMO a comm. message.

After a moment, the medic's excited and simultaneously agitated voice responded. ::Yeah?::

::Did you forget you had a patient waiting?::

::Primus damn it! Send the his yellow aft here.::

Jazz turned toward Sunstreaker. "That certain bossy CMO is ready for you."

Sunstreaker, to his part, looked relieved. "Thanks." His relief dissipated somewhat after a moment as indecisiveness slowly spread across his face. "Can you help? That whole leaning forward thing kind of makes walking hard."

Internally Jazz groaned. Sunstreaker normally doesn't ask for help so the saboteur couldn't say no to the request. That was hardly any comfort because he knew what would happen to his evening plans. "Of course, Sunstreaker. Just don't lurch forward 'cuz I might spill some energon. If you do, I'll aim your way," he lightly teased before taking one of Sunstreaker's arms over his shoulders.

While slowly walking Sunstreaker back Jazz decided to contact Prowl when it had nearly been 10 breems since they separated. ::Hey Prowl, I'm helping an injured Sunstreaker. It'll probably be a few more breems before I'm in my quarters.::

::Acknowledged.::

Jazz groaned. He could practically hear Prowl sitting back down to work. It would be longer than a few more breems before Jazz had company.

"I'm not that heavy."

"Huh?" Jazz looked over at Sunstreaker, who was giving him a pointed look.

"You groaned and then slouched."

"Oh no, it wasn't you. If I remembered correctly, I never signed off on one of Red's reports." A total lie. Jazz made a point to always sign an officer's report because all of the officers, including him, would bug the missing signature if a full shift transpired without the officer's signature.

"Oh yeah. I think I'm close enough if you want to do that now."

"Nonsense. Red's already starting his shift so I'm in trouble anyways. Going back won't save me now." Leaving Sunstreaker wasn't going to help Jazz's evening so there was no reason to force the mech to walk the rest of the way on his own.

Eventually they arrived at Medbay for what felt like a joor-long walk to the saboteur. The doors open and a disgruntled Grapple met them, followed by a triumphant Ratchet glowing behind him.

"Excuse me," Grapple muttered.

The pair moved out of Grapple's way before making their way to the berth Ratchet gestured them towards. "Feeling a bit smug, Ratchet?" Jazz asked as he slowly pulled Sunstreaker's arm over his head while Sunstreaker adjusted himself into a sitting position.

"Grapple's idea of spacial arrangement for a new Medbay didn't match mine. It took some time, but naturally I won."

"With or without pulling rank?"

"Without." Ratchet smirked. Sunstreaker opened his mouth but Ratchet cut him off. "And without ranting, threatening, cursing, or throwing things at him. I usually reserve that for my frequent visitors. Or the incredibly stupid ones that show up only once in a while. Take your pick which category you fall under."

Jazz smiled, "Haha. Have fun you two." With Ratchet's dismissal and a "thanks" from Sunstreaker, Jazz headed towards his quarters. As he walked he buzzed Prowl with a comm. message to let the mech know that he was heading towards his quarters. Prowl acknowledge and said he's been there in a half of a joor.

::You know that no one's going to put two-and-two together about my trip from Medbay to my quarters and your trip from your office to the officers' sector, right?:: Jazz asked.

::Ironhide should be leaving his quarters within the next half joor for his shift. I would like to give additional time in case he leaves late. This will avoid the possibility of him seeing me step into your quarters.::

'_Okay, _now _I'm getting irritated. One, Tactician Paranoid could easily claim he wanted to talk to me as friends. Two, I have another shift sooner than I'd like and the ticking clock just to meet up isn't helping. I don't mind staying up the entire time between shifts _with_ Prowl, but not_ waiting_ for Prowl_.' Jazz picked up his pace and entered his quarters before dropping his energon off in his quarters. He promptly turned around as the energon cube landed on the table and headed back out of his quarters.

Walking briskly with clipped, tight steps, Jazz went straight for Ironhide's door. "Ironhide! Get to your shift!" Jazz yelled as he pounded on the door. Moments later the door _whisked_ open to reveal a slightly bewildered Ironhide.

"Jazz! What are you talking about? My shift doesn't start for another half joor!" Ironhide barked back at Jazz.

"Really? I thought the schedule said almost joor ago." Jazz feigned surprise and gave Ironhide an 'are you sure' look. Jazz decided to suspend his rule about minimizing his lying if it solved his immediate problem. They were getting closer to the dreaded 'Limbo' timeframe, where Prowl might renege on their plans if he felt like too much off-duty time had been lost. Not to mention that the less time they spent together the longer it would take for Jazz to solve his _other _problem, and he had too much pent up frustration as it stood.

"No, it's in a half joor."

"Hmm, well okay. Oh, FYI, you're sharing your shift with Red, who just started his shift. He's in his early routine where he checks the cameras and whatnot, but you know what he does next…" Jazz trailed off. Everyone knew Red's early routines at the start of each shift since it was always the same.

Ironhide, who was in the process of commanding his doors to shut, abruptly paused. After hesitating for a moment he gave in. "I'd rather be early than risk having him following me and trying to lecture me about how I compromised security 'cuz I was late." Ironhide exited and disappeared around the corner leading out.

Not even a klik later Jazz was buzzing Prowl again with his comm. link. ::Ironhide's gone. My next shift starts in 9.3 joors, so you better get here fast. I'm _not_ recharging until I get time to relax with you.::

::On my way.::

Jazz grinned and walked back to his quarters with a small bounce in each step. Once inside Jazz moved to his entertainment section and searched through his movie library collection. He found that intelligent humor movies worked well for the pair, human- or cybertronian-made. They didn't always watch movies, but they usually lead to fun discussions and fun activities afterwards.

After browsing through the collection Jazz noticed that they had watched almost all of his surviving Cybertronian movies. While he knew Prowl preferred cybertronian to human entertainment, there were a few human movies that supposedly fell into that category and Jazz hadn't gotten around to checking them out yet.

There was a quiet knock on his door. Jazz commanded the doors to open and Prowl walked through them quickly. "You're just in time to help me make a selection. I wanted to pick something we haven't watched before and I thought I'd give you the final pick."

"Out of how many movies?"

"Two."

"That's hardly finally pick," Prowl said with a small smile in the corner of his mouth.

"Meh. Which one these human movies do you want to watch: 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles', or 'Princess Bride'?"

"What are they about?" Prowl asked curiously.

"Well, the first one is about a man trying to get home to his family but he runs into a series of bad luck while stuck with a hapless guy.

"The other one, 'Princess Bride', is about rescuing a young woman so she can be with her true love and not some evil prince. It seems like the focus is more on romance, but it's supposed to be mostly comical about what happens while perusing her."

"Hmm…" Prowl mulled over the movie descriptions for a moment. "Do you know if either of them is any good?"

"Honestly, no. Spike gave them to me as a gift a while back and that started an argument amongst the humans about whether the movies made a nice or awful gift. I figured we could watch them and judge it for ourselves. Might be fun." Jazz shrugged.

"Which one seemed overall better or at least more suited for now?"

"I think 'Princess Bride' had a lot more approval," Jazz recalled.

"Then I suppose if we're judging movies we might as well start there."

"Okay, 'Princess Bride' it is then." Jazz selected it from his library. Prowl sat down on the couch and settled in carefully to prop up his doorwings. Jazz grabbed the energon and casually sat to Prowl's left. Together they enjoyed the movie while sharing the energon, most of which Jazz absently consumed. It did inspire some amusing conversation, even if they had to pause the movie and debate over the miracle scene. Prowl had a tough time accepting that idea even if he had already accepted "movie world", as Jazz called it, where science and logic tended to get sacked in favor of entertainment.

After the movie Jazz looked at Prowl, who was resting lightly against his right shoulder. "Enjoyed the movie?"

"It was alright. It had its moments." Prowl looked up at Jazz and readjusted himself so he could look into Jazz's optics straight-on. Jazz was secretly disappointed for Prowl's presence to disappear from his shoulder.

"Are you _still _unhappy about that miracle scene?" Jazz laughed softly and shook his head in fondness of Prowl's persistent rejection that a chocolate-covered pill could restore "mostly dead" people. It was even more amusing because some time ago Jazz had a similar debate with Prowl about zombies. Prowl had accepted zombies well enough when the explanations were more about science and less about magic. For reasons like that he couldn't accept a "mostly dead" person being quickly and fully restored back to life by a chocolate-covered magical pill.

"So what if I am?" Prowl returned in a playfully defensive way. "And you? Did you enjoy it?"

"I liked it a little more than you. The part in the beginning with Inigo Montoya and Westley at the top of the mountain was amusing."

"Yes, it was. But I found Inigo Montoya's explanation about dedicating his life to avenging his father a bit peculiar…" Prowl trailed off, pondering about a man whose entire purpose in life was to get revenge for his deceased father.

Jazz immediately knew why Prowl would fixate on that thought. By Cybertronian standards it wasn't that long ago when Jazz slipped up and had to give Prowl the news of his sparker's fate. Before that moment Prowl hadn't liked his sparker, Blacksmoke, because the mech had abandoned his family in a time of need. However, the news of how his sparker died to save an unconscious Prowl, and his final words to Smokescreen for Prowl, had shaken Prowl and left him with a lot of unanswered questions. Questions he hadn't considered before now.

"There's so many holes in what you told me about my sparker's death," Prowl said, echoing Jazz's thoughts. "Even though I know who killed him, it seems strange to dedicate a part of my life to killing Starscream for it. I do want Starscream terminated for it, among other things, but I feel confusion more so than anything else. I thought I knew enough about him since he abandoned us while my creator was hospitalized, but his last moments conflict with what I remember."

Jazz nodded, hearing Prowl's questioning tone. "Yeah, I get that. I wouldn't worry though about whether you need to get revenge on Starscream, though. You're smarter than him and you've ruined more than a few of his plans. Eventually that madmech will run out of luck and you'll get him for good. Just like Inigo Montoya!" Jazz swept his arm across and jabbed it into the air as if he was fencing.

Prowl chuckled. "Thanks, Jazz. You can count on war to make that sound like sweet talk."

Jazz laughed too. "Hey, sweet talk is a matter of perspective." Taking that same arm, he brought it around Prowl's back and pulled him forward. He leaned forward and gave Prowl a soft kiss. Prowl returned the kiss and they remained like that for a moment before Prowl separated and leaned his forehead against Jazz's.

Softly, Prowl spoke up, "Jazz, I'm feeling a bit tired."

"What? You want to go? I thought you had enough energon left over, plus the some we shared." Jazz sulked.

"No. You had most of it, and I may have been over estimating the amount of energon I had remaining. But… I don't want to leave." Prowl hesitated before saying that last part but it felt good to say aloud. It was something he thought about last time but he was too cowardly to ask. His logic center kept nagging him by pointing out he didn't technically need the rest. The truth was that he'd let his energon levels run lower than normal this time. It was reasonable after all to claim he was tired and stay over if he really was tired. And he really did want to stay over.

He gave Jazz's forehead a chaste kiss and he saw Jazz's face light up. "I think it would be nice to recharge here until you leave for your shift."

"You want anything first?" Jazz said quietly, containing the excitement from his voice. He didn't want to spoil the moment by sounding like a giddy sparkling. Jazz knew that Prowl meant really did mean 'recharge' when he said recharge, but right now it felt better than a "recharge" with some casual relationship.

"No, I'm fine."

The two separated and Jazz turned off the screen as Prowl walked to the berth and waited for him. "Inside or outside?" Jazz asked. Like any quarters, Jazz's berth was pushed up against the wall.

"I'm aware that Ops mechs have a strong preference for being on the outside, so I don't mind recharging on the inside."

Prowl carefully slide towards the wall on the berth. Jazz waited, unsure how Prowl and he would fit together on account of those doorwings. Prowl, for his part, sized up Jazz and calculated how much space they would need to comfortably rest together. He flattened his doorwings and locked the servos in place so they wouldn't gravitate to their natural position. "I hope you aren't a restless mech," Prowl teased, "or else my doorwings might hurt in the morning. If that happens then you'll be sleeping on the inside, Ops mech or not."

"Are you comfortable?" Jazz asked with concern.

"I'm fairly comfortable. My doorwings do not hurt in this position and they won't so long as the servos aren't under pressure. I just can't roll because they won't move with me. I don't intend to though."

Jazz grinned and carefully laid down on the berth. The black and white pair readjusted themselves so they were loosely laying in each other's arms. The pair offlined moments later as they relaxed in the warm embrace.

**/*'*'*/**

**/*'*'*/**

Jazz stirred before onlining. '_Mmm?_' A tugging sensation in his arm forced him awake and he powered on his optics. Prowl had started to roll over and his left doorwing was mildly pinching Jazz's arm. Jazz carefully pulled the Praxian forward so he could free his arm and keep Prowl from unknowingly hurt himself. He was going to either have to recharge on the inside or need a bigger berth that could accommodate a mech who needed wider space. The second option sounded better even if it was harder to accomplish.

Not one for wasting moments, Jazz gazed at Prowl's face, partially lit in the white-wash light filtering in from the door. Before him was a serene sight, with the light faintly glistening on Prowl's tranquil face. Jazz couldn't stop staring at the sleeping mech. Unwilling to resist his urge Jazz reached forward and lightly caressed the side hidden in the shadows. Unfortunately, Jazz's fond moment was interrupted when he felt tightly clenched muscle cables under his partner's facial plate.

'_What's making him worried or stressed?_' Jazz softly massaged the muscle cables until the tension in the muscle cables dissolved. Jazz couldn't help but wonder what could be in the Praxian's dreams. He considered a few possible causes but it didn't take long to find a reason. Jazz knew Prowl was troubled by his sparker, and even though the matter was easily dismissed this evening that it didn't mean it was gone.

Once again thinking about the matter, Jazz considered the questions he had about Smokescreen's story about Blacksmoke. Why happened back then that caused Blacksmoke to suddenly change gears and leave a mission? Why would Blacksmoke urgently seek out a friend he had zero remaining ties except a dead past? Was he abandoning the critical mission or was he trying to get a message out before returning to finish it? Then there was Prowl's numerous questions about the mech, but that in itself caused alarm for Jazz. How did someone miss that Blacksmoke had a sparkling named Prowl, the very same mech who became their SIC? Or did they actually miss it? Spec Ops mechs with young sparklings were barred from certain missions – the kind of missions that Blacksmoke was regularly involved in planning and executing. If Blacksmoke had a sparkling listed then he never would have been a part of those missions.

Unable to let the matter vanish again without further investigation, Jazz stealthily climbed out of the berth without disturbing Prowl. He slipped quietly out the doors and moved towards his office. There, he would have access to all of the Special Ops files, including the ones brought from Cybertron. Jazz began searching the files for the mission Blacksmoke was supposed to be midway through when he left.

'_File not found? What the Pit?' _That was a critical mission. How could it not be found? The Autobots had loaded information into the _Ark_'s computers when they were preparing to leave. They knew they had a finite amount of time so they loaded files starting with then-current plans and missions before working backwards, giving priorities to critical, urgent, or important missions and information. Either what he was searching for didn't meet that criteria, which wasn't right, or someone had prevented it from being stored in Teeletran.

Now Jazz was even more worried than earlier. This time he tried again but instead he ran search algorithms on all files looking for anything with Blacksmoke's name or indications of trouble surrounding that timeframe.

'_Primus damn it!_' Jazz cursed after a while when the algorithms turned up nothing. His frustration was cut short a moment later when his internal alarm went off. He'd set up an alarm so he'd be back in his berth and recharging before Prowl onlined. His search had become fruitless anyways. It was clear he was going to have to get in touch with his remaining officers still stationed on Cybertron about the missing records.

Jazz quietly slipped back into his quarters and laid down on his berth. He pulled Prowl closer to him and rested his head on Prowl's sprawled arm. Prowl murmured in his sleep and leaned into Jazz's chest. Jazz smiled before beginning to cycle down for recharge. '_Prowl, I don't know if I can give you the answers you need, but I'll find answers and I'll do my best to give you want you need for closure._'

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**Chapter ****End **A/N Section:

Please review! Any comments (besides flames) is a source of motivation to publish faster :) No, I'm not holding the story for randsom, I'm just saying.


	2. Chapter 2

******Chapter Start A/N Section:**

***I do not own Transformers. That belongs to the all-powerful Hasbro. Blacksmoke and the Special Ops mechs on Cybertron mine, though.***This is the last disclaimer warning I'll give but it, as well as my OC claim, applies to all chapters.

Cybertronian-Human Time Terminology: Klik - 1.2 min; Breem - 8.3 min; Joor - 6.5 hours; Orn - 13 days; Vorn - 83 years

Scene Changes: /*'*'*/ = Scene change on Earth; /~'~'~/ = Scene change on Cybertron

Thanks to Evil Ratchet for beta reading!

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**Chapter 2**

Prowl onlined first in the warm berth as his internal alarm sounded. He needed to leave Jazz's quarters soon because it was almost time for a shift change, meaning that the other officers would be passing through the halls shortly. For that reason Prowl wanted to wake early so he could have one more moment with Jazz before they returned to their duties.

Now it was Prowl's turn to look at a black and white mech recharging, this time with the early morning light filtering through the window. He was sprawled partially on his right side and back and his head tucked in, with his left leg hanging off the berth and dangling in the air. His right arm was loosely resting on Prowl's arm with his left arm lying across his chest. The sight was sweet and amusing, but mostly just amusing. Prowl carefully reached out for a sensor node by Jazz's left audio and gave it a feather light caress.

Immediately Jazz snickered and jerked his head. His left hand defensively shot up before relaxing and lazily pushing Prowl away. "You really like abusing that piece of knowledge," Jazz grinned as his optics powered on.

"Of course. Really, it's not a difficult concept. I'm surprised I seem to be the only one to consider the possibility that a mech with highly sensitive audios, or highly sensitive sensors for detecting sound wave vibrations, would be sensitive to _all_ vibrations. Including those caused by touch. From what I gather, I believe humans call the sensation 'tickling.'"

"Mmhmm." Jazz stretched his legs and arms length-wise before rolling to his left. "Ack!" Jazz's limbs shot out and his ped and hand managed to each catch the short berth posts before he fell off the berth. "Okay, somehow I am getting a bigger berth. I don't know how I'm gonna do that without giving the real reason, but I wouldn't be the head of Special Ops if I couldn't find a creative solution."

"I concur." Prowl said with an airy tone of humor. After Jazz righted himself into a sitting position, he looked back at Prowl as the SIC continued. "Someone in your position should be able to find a solution to our problem without compromising our secret."

"Oh, I see." Jazz stood up and pulled Prowl with him. The Praxian stood and was able to finally relax his doorwing servos and stretch. As he did Jazz spoke again. "You want me to do all the work and reap the benefits."

"It _is _the more efficient way to use our time," Prowl pointed out as he finished stretching. "The sooner the better. My doorwings are quite stiff."

Jazz asked anxiously, "Do they hurt?"

"No. Not to any extent that would prevent me from doing this again."

"Okay, good." Jazz decided to not tell Prowl how he had nearly hurt his doorwings while recharging. Instead, Jazz would do what he could to prevent the problem in the future. Even if the TIC had to lose some recharge it would be worth it if they could share a berth.

Jazz checked the time and gave a look of disappointment. "It appears our time together is up."

"Sadly, it appears so," Prowl agreed as he also checked the time.

Jazz leaned over and gave Prowl a light squeeze on the arm, mindful of Prowl's boundaries. He learned a while back that the tactician wasn't exactly one for physical affection early in the orn, the audio sensor thing notwithstanding. It seemed that Prowl was more receptive when things started coming to an end, perhaps because he would be winding down instead of winding up. "Maybe again, after my shift?" Jazz asked hopefully.

"I can spend some time with you, but I can't stay long."

"Why? I didn't see you on the regular shift schedule."

"I've been off the regular scheduled shifts for two orns in anticipation of Ratchet and Grapple finally finishing and submitting their lists of requirements for the new Medbay. Prime already gave orders to immediately begin the second stage once those two and Ironhide signed off on the first stage. Ironhide signed his portion two shifts ago and I was notified about Ratchet and Grapple when I was heading to your quarters.

"That means I need to pull several mechs off of duty and begin plans and proposals while Prime and selected team contact the human delegates to initiate meetings and conferences. Since Prime's team must work to accommodate the humans' shorter schedules, then that also means my team's schedule will need to do the same. So for the time being, my schedule will be a bit too broken up for a regular schedule."

"Slag," Just twisted his face in discontent. "For how long?"

"Depends."

"Really, Prowl? Don't make me drag this out of you."

"It depends on Ratchet, Prime, Grapple's capabilities to build new equipment to spec with the limited materials available, and several other key issues, such as security. It also depends on the humans. I'm more concerned about the humans because this could involve many different human groups, such as international politicians, militaries, and suppliers."

Jazz whistled. "So in other words it'll be a long time before you and I get another evening like this one."

"Depends."

"Oh, ha _ha_." Jazz rolled his optics under his visor and turned towards the door. Since it was his quarters he stepped out first and checked the area. "So are you on shift now or what?" Jazz asked as he moved away when the coast was clear. Prowl stepped out and moved to Jazz's side, away from his quarters to appear as if he'd stopped by to talk to Jazz on his way out.

"I'm planning to start now. I expect that I will be getting off of one my shorter shifts a little after yours ends, and I'll have to start my shift sooner than you as well."

"Yeah. Sometimes I think we oughta acclimate our schedules to theirs, but then we'd just have new problems. Like havin' really short shifts or dealing with Decepticons – I'm pretty sure they aren't working on human schedules – or trying to coordinate things with Cybertron whenever we get the chance."

"Speaking of Cybertron, it would help speed this up a great deal if you could find someone on Cybertron who can help us. There should still be salvageable equipment that Grapple can fix to Ratchet's liking, and that would be a far more straight forward and quicker approach – even with the spacebridge issue. Prime wants us to focus on working with the humans on this project to build better relationships, but I find slowing down our only medical facility's upgrade to be illogical. Even more so when you consider the problems we'll encounter with Medbay under construction, and his intentions will only draw that out. There are other things we can squander our time over in an effort to build better relationships with the inhabitants of Earth. Things that won't put lives at unnecessary risk."

"Yeah, anything I can do. It's not like I'll have much to do anyways." It was true. Now that Prime and Prowl were rapidly initiating the second stage, roughly a fourth of the base would immediately start working full time on this project and another fourth were on standby for whatever came up. That could potentially leave the remaining Autobots thinly spread out across the different shifts if things started to heat up. Jazz sighed. '_Well, at least my shift – wait a klik…_'

"Prowl…" Jazz asked wearily.

"Yes, Jazz?"

"Is my scheduled shift the same as it is now as it was when I went to recharge?" Jazz asked with some apprehension in his voice. The only officers who weren't fully dedicated to this project were Ironhide and Red Alert and they just came off of their shifts.

"I'm sorry, Jazz, but given the awkward timing of the project and the shift change, this means you will be covering at least the full shift as well as the shift change, and you can only work routine items."

'_What a crappy scheduling job_,' Jazz grumbled to himself. This wasn't necessarily a onetime deal, either; Ironhide and Red Alert were also on standby for whenever plans and negotiations got to the part about beefing up Medbay's security, leaving Jazz as the only officer not directly or indirectly involved in the project. That meant he would be stuck carrying the burden of nearly all the officers' duties if the other two were pulled into the project, and that could result in double or even triple shifts. If not for the Autobots' sake, then Jazz would do what he could for his sake. No one wants to pull a triple shift.

After exchanging goodbyes, Jazz's with a little more ire, they parted ways. Prowl headed towards his quarters to pick up a datapad he left from his previous break, while Jazz headed straight to his office.

Jazz casually strolled to his office as he mentally checked his list of planned activities to see what he could do under the new restrictions. With no Decepticon activity there was basically only one approved activity for everyone: routine surveillance for the troops and reading routine reports for officers. The workload wasn't the only thing that would be boring either; since almost everyone's schedule deviated from the norm, there would be little to no trouble from the troops. The saboteur's shifts would be pretty dull and light until the project was completed or if they discovered Decepticon activity.

Normally Jazz would find this a little depressing. However, in a way it all fit perfectly. Regular work didn't need a command chain so there wasn't anything for Jazz to actively do. With no operations to plan, the only reports being filed were the boring typical ones, and virtually no misbehaving mechs, Jazz was pretty much on the schedule just to be there.

That combined with Prowl asking him to find a way to get in touch with Cybertron gave Jazz the perfect opportunity and alibi for getting in touch with their home planet and figure out the black hole gravitating around Blacksmoke. He would still do what he could for the Medbay project, but he was also going to get to the bottom of his concerns about Special Ops on Cybertron, too.

After finishing the few short reports from those just ending their shifts, Jazz was ready to focus his attention elsewhere. ::Hey, Blaster:: Jazz sent the communications specialist a comm. message. Blaster was monitoring all outgoing and incoming frequencies, including any to and from Cybertron.

::Yo, what's up my brotha?:: Blaster responded in his usual jovial fashion.

::I got a request from Prowl to help speed things up with Medbay, and I was hoping you could help me.::

::Yeah? In what way?:: Blaster asked casually.

::Well, you know how this Medbay thing could become a fiasco and get slowed down 'cuz of politics and stuff? Prowl asked me to see if I could find a work-around through some of my old buddies on Cybertron. Gotta keep it on the down low, though, 'K? Better to plea for Prime's forgiveness and whatnot.:: Jazz said coolly. He didn't want to raise any questions or concerns from Blaster.

::Hey, anything legal or legal-ish to get the job done quick – and with a happy Ratchet, 'cuz you know it was done right if he's happy. We need things to get back to normal around here fast, or as start being _fun _again. I've got communications monitoring duty practically every first shift, so I got you covered. Just lemme know when you're establishing and disconnecting communications from Cybertron so I can warn ya if anything comes my way.::

::Awesome. Just remember to keep it to yourself. You know some mechs around here are major blabber mouths.:: Jazz turned his attention to his computer and began establishing a connection with Cybertron. This really was working out perfectly, or as close to perfect as possible. Jazz could do almost whatever he wanted without suspicion now that he had Prowl's and Blaster's buyoff. '_Maybe if my lucks keep up I'll even use this time to get a hold of a new berth at some point_,' Jazz thought as he waited.

After a short wait the connection began establishing contact with Cybertron. Jazz put in several old codes that were known by only Special Ops team members and a handful of senior officers. No matter where the main operations center for Special Ops moved, that set of codes would always re-route him and anyone else to the new location.

The image on his monitor screen morphed into video conference with a mech sitting in a florescent-lit room, the lights focused on the screens, leaving the farthest wall of the unfamiliar room weakly illuminated. The mech before him needed a repaint, but his burnt orange paint and deep green torso highlights faintly reflected the light from his sleek form, a show of the mech's attempt to make the best of his appearance by polishing the paint he had left.

The mech's tired facial expression brightened with joy, grinning from audio to audio, and his blue optics glowed brightly through the sharpshooter's target system lens overlaying his optics. Unlike Jazz's, this mech's visor was only mildly tinted blue-grey and it ran straight across his optics with no contours following his facial structure. "Jazz!" the mech cried out, delighted at the sight of his commander.

Jazz returned the favor with his own smile. "Hi ya, Defilade. It's been a long time."

"No slag! What brings you here – er, well, so to speak?" Defilade asked, his voice failing miserably to contain his giddiness at the sight of Jazz's friendly face.

Jazz chortled at the mech's enthusiasm. Defilade was younger than most Autobots believed, with war artificially aging him even as a sparkling. However, around the sociable Jazz and without war hanging thick in the air, Defilade's inner youth would bubble to the surface.

"I need to discuss a few things. I should probably start with the medical equipment stuff. Got anyone there who could help salvage some for me?"

Defilade pondered the request for a moment. "Yeah, but he's tied up for now. Why don't you give me a list of what you need and I'll get it to him?"

"Okay. I'm going to transmit CMO Ratchet's list of medical equipment and upgrades to you now." Jazz sent Defilade Ratchet's file. He waited until the young mech was able to pull up the file. "Now, that's a list of what he needs to have in his Medical Bay. Whatever you guys can find or drudge up in the shortest amount of time that can be used, modified, or whatever for those means is good enough. We can work on them back here."

"Okay, can do. How do I contact you when we've finally got it?"

"Let my first lieutenant and me worry about that. We need to do this carefully 'cuz the only way to get that stuff from Cybertron to Earth is through the Decepticons' spacebridge. Now, speaking of Vesicant, I need to have a word with him about another matter."

"Okay, I'm send him a message letting him know you're waiting for him."

"Make sure you inform him that there's a limited time window," Jazz reminded Defilade, "so I can't have him lollygagging."

"What's 'lollygagging?'" Defilade asked after sending the top priority message to Vesicant.

"Umm… it's a term the inhabitants of this planet use to describe wasting time," Jazz said lamely, forgetting how much of his slang and colloquial expressions had changed since waking on Earth.

"Oh, neat. So you're getting along with the natives, I take it?" the orange mech wondered.

"Yeah, and for future reference, they're called 'humans.'" Jazz and Defilade talked for a few more kliks before Vesicant practically bursted into the room from the dimly lit hallway.

"Jazz!" The new mech stared at Jazz with a transparent look of shock and worry, standing just barely within the light. Jazz hardly recognized the mech. Vesicant once had simple armor with a simple paint job of deep violet and grey-white. Now Vesicant's paint was a blackened violet with his face, hands, midsection, and inner thighs colored a light grey. A vibrant indigo blue colored plate swept up along the lower center of his midsection into a point, ending where his black chest and grey midsection met. Both of his forearms had two twin lines of the same color spiraling upward from his wrists to his elbows, merging into a single line and traveling up his arm until it faded to a point just past his shoulders. The only thing that remained a grey-white was the Autobot sigil on his left arm's shoulder. When Jazz saw him last, Vesicant was not an imposing mech, but now Vesicant's stature radiated strength. It seemed that while Jazz was gone, Vesicant found his inner vanity – Sunstreaker-worthy vanity at that.

After recovering from his own shock, Jazz asked, "What's with the worry, Vesicant?"

"I wasn't expecting to hear from you. I thought communications with the _Ark_ were very limited. We've been unable to build stable long-distance communications systems since being forced to relocated, let alone inter-stellar communications, so we haven't been able to reach any remaining Autobot strongholds. You didn't take any risks contacting us, did you?"

"No. We were able to repair and strengthen the _Ark_'s inter-stellar communications system. A Cybertron base was able to upgrade their communications system and link it to the other locations, so now the _Ark_ can patch into all of the Autobot Cybertron networks. In fact, me reaching you means that you can do the same, too. I'm a little surprised you don't know that, but it's a recent upgrade so maybe they haven't finished mapping the network to your area." Jazz explained. "You need to establish a connection with them once we're finished here."

"Yes, we will make sure to connect with the rest of the forces then. I'm glad that you called because that's very helpful to know," Vesicant calmly stated. He turned to Defilade. "You're excused. We need more mechs guarding the north wall."

"Understood." Defilade stood up and gave Jazz one last glance. "I'll make sure that guy I mentioned earlier knows to check the list as soon as possible, so don't you worry."

After Defilade was dismissed, Vesicant spoke. "List?"

"Yeah, so I got a couple of things to talk to you," Jazz said, shifting his position in his chair to look more squarely into his monitor. "First is that list. I need you to assemble and dispatch a team to find anything on the list I uploaded, or anything that can be modified or built from to meet CMO Ratchet's requirements. It's all medical equipment so I need it ASAP."

His 1LT nodded. "Understood. I will have your orders cared out swiftly."

"Good. Once that's been established, I want you to contact me at 07:00 joors. You'll get in contact with Blaster and he'll patch you through to me.

"Now, there's another matter I need to talk to you about," Jazz changed the subject after Vesicant again nodded his acceptance of the plan. "Do you recall our efforts to load the _Ark_ with everything critical, urgent, or on-going missions for Special Ops?"

"I do. I wasn't there since I was working to free trapped evacuees in Iacon, but everyone knew about it. Every division was bombarding the _Ark_ with as much intel as they could."

"Yeah, it was a lot of intel. I was reviewing our files here to pull aside any within S.O. we need updated, and while I was searching I noticed that the files on the 'Pathway: Echo' mission were missing," Jazz kept his tone neutral to mask his true intentions for looking at Blacksmoke's last mission. "As I remember it, that mission was a failure and happened not that long before we left. Prime specifically ordered that all missions on-going or just prior to the _Ark_'s departure be loaded into the databases. Our Second-In-Command, Prowl, also issued an order to load critical and failed missions in addition for further tactical analysis. I don't know how that file was missed given it met each of their own criteria, especially since I have every other file on that missions series. Still, regardless of however that happened, we're out of compliance. I want that file provided to me."

Vesicant's mouth twitched as he expressed his troubled uncertainty. "I will do what I can, but a lot has happened since you left. As you may have noticed and as I've mentioned, this S.O. command post is more of a make-shift shelter. The Special Ops station you knew fell in a Decepticon attack and we were forced to retreat. We were overwhelmed and unable to save anything so we had to destroy our systems instead to prevent them from steal anything."

Jazz frowned. "What about the facility we used to continually backup up all of our data before it fell? The remaining forces in Iacon still use that same facility to back up their data and they haven't mentioned any problems. In fact, they've even pulled information for Prime from there recently. Now that you know you can communicate with the rest of the Autobot forces, you will be plenty capable of reaching that facility and retrieving any backed up copies of Special Ops files. " It was impossible that the "Pathway: Echo" mission, also called "PEM", wasn't stored _somewhere_. The Pathway mission series had been critical in building hidden tunnels, or underground pathways, so the Autobots could stay mobile and move energon, back when the Decepticons controlled most of the surface. PEM was no different and it was devised to build a tunnel through the remains of one of the first places to be destroyed in the war; hence the name "Echo."

"That's quite true. I'll send a request to the facility for everything we have stored on those missing files and have them sent it back here."

"Good, because not only are we out of compliance, but I also found what appears to be a major discrepancy with two separately filed reports that directly or indirectly include PEM. One of the reports indicates that an assigned operative deserted the mission." Jazz carefully constructed the conversation.

Vesicant gave Jazz a quizzical look. "Where did you see that?"

"One of the reports is from our operations outline of the Pathway missions, and the other is old report about an attack on Iacon a little before the _Ark_'s departure. In the Iacon report it lists one of our Ops, Blacksmoke, as a casualty. Yet, according to the operations outline report, there were two operatives assigned to 'Echo' and one happens to be Blacksmoke. We may have lost a few mechs during those missions, but I remember their bodies were found in the tunnels." Jazz said, using half-truths. The Special Ops had a saying: if you don't know who did it, you assume anyone could've done it. Whoever tampered with the S.O. files could be at that command post now. Even though Vesicant could not have tampered with the files himself since he lacked the opportunity and means, there was no telling who did and what the lieutenant might unintentionally – or perhaps even intentionally – say to alert them.

"Hmmm…" Vesicant considered the new information. "I'll see what I can find."

"Do that. And make sure you include Blacksmoke's personnel file and everything related to him. If the report is true, then I want to know why he left the mission. If his disappearance is not directly linked to the mission, then it may have been him and I need to consider the implications." Jazz wanted to know just how much of Blacksmoke's history had been kept out of his files. He would also be able scrutinize the report and see if there was ever information about Blacksmoke having a sparkling that was later deleted.

"Understood. Is there anything else you'd like from us?" the dark violet mech asked.

Jazz considered the question. "Are there any missions or activities going on now?"

"No." Vesicant quickly shook his head. "We've finally managed to regroup and now we're working on fortifying our position. The attack was not recent but it took us longer than expected to find a secured location and gather our scattered teams and operatives. We've been following Prime's last order on Cybertron and only cared out defense missions."

"I see. Then why did the base get overrun with Decepticons and why were we so scattered, especially if all missions were meant to maintain a defensive line?"

"We lent our services out too much to uphold other positions and that's how this whole mess happened."

"I see." Jazz repeated with a frown, internally criticizing Vesicant for ignoring that 10/15 rule. Prime's first strategist had determined long ago that at any given time no more than 10% of a command post's total soldier population should be on missions away from the base, and no more than 15% should be off duty. Prowl would be angry if he knew about Vesicant's foolishness. It appeared that in finding his internal sense of vanity that Vesicant lost some of his ability to perform his duties. "Is that why Defilade looks so disheveled?"

"He was one of the last to return. He was on a mission in Kaon when the attack occurred so it took him longer to find us."

"What mission?" Jazz demanded. "Was it successful?"

"I will give you that report as well when I retrieve the other, and no; Def decided to abandon the mission when he was no longer able to receive information from us." Jazz could hear the faint annoyance in Ves' voice.

"Okay." Jazz rubbed the bridge of his nose, discouraged by the deterioration of his Corp that remained on Cybertron. He decided he needed more time to consider what he'd learn along with everything else. "I want a full report on Def's latest mission, especially since it was in Kaon. In fact, I want all S.O. activity since I left, and I want everything we've just discussed no later than two orns from now. That includes a report out on the progress of gathering the medical equipment. Make sure you send me the information at 07:00 joors within the next two orns."

"I'll have someone get on it right away. The information on Defilade's mission's information is easy enough to get, and two orns should be sufficient for us to get everything we backed up on PEM."

"Great. Have Def send me the information." Jazz wanted to speak to Defilade again. The young mech would be willing to fill him in on everything, down even to who's been overly cranky and why Vesicant made such a grievous error that cost them an important command center.

Vesicant gave Jazz a final promise to have Defilade send him the results on time before Jazz terminated the connection. After taking a moment to lean back into his chair and relax, Jazz sent a comm. message to Blaster. ::Hey, my man. I'm done. FYI, there should be a transmission from Cybertron at 07:00 joors for me, either during your next shift or the following one. If you don't have one by 07:30 joors on your second shift, then I want to know immediately.::

::Got it. If anything comes in for you then I'll patch it straight through.::

Jazz turned his attention back to his black screen. '_At least I accomplished the first step into making some headway in solvin' a problem important to the Autobots on Earth. And another one for me and maybe even Prowl_,' he thought, focusing on the positive. There were still questions those files couldn't readily answer, but at least he was getting a large chunk of the information he needed to help him piece together a small list of suspects. Unfortunately, he'd also discovered this wouldn't be the last of his problems to solve. He needed to resolve what's going on with his Corp and fast.

Now he just had to wait out his boring and quiet shifts until Defilade reported back to him. The wait was going to drive him mad without any distractions.

\~'~'~\

The command room became silent as his commander terminated the communication line. Vesicant walked to the monitors and began accessing hidden files. Working diligently, Vesicant swiftly leafed through several files before isolating three separate reports and confirming his suspicions. He opened a communications line from the monitor to another Special Ops mech currently out on patrols. "Blue Bark," Vesicant hailed over a private line to a handheld video communication device, "we have a major problem. The kind that needs your kind of attention."

"Oh?" asked his ghostly grey colored and trusted ally. His face was obscured in the underground refuse but his voice peaked with curiosity.

"Jazz has established contact. He's insisting on getting all of the information about the mission 'Pathway: Echo' and Defilade's recent failed mission."

"How could he know about _those_?"

"As for the first, I don't know, but I told him about Defilade."

"Why in the _pit _would you do _that_?" The tone in Blue Bark's voice said in no uncertainty that he thought Vesicant was an idiot.

"I told him to control how he discovered the information. The conversation was already moving the wrong way, and I knew he'd insist on talking to Defilade and there's no way that mech wouldn't spill the bolts to Jazz. Def may not understand what's going on, but Jazz is certainly capable of putting it together. Odds are that Defilade would tell Jazz about it at the next opportunity and Jazz will demand to know everything at the mention of 'Kaon'. At least this way he won't be as suspicious of me." Vesicant explained.

"Alright… he thinks you're dumb but whatever. What do you want me to do about it?"

"As you know, I had one of my mechs make sure to sever Jazz from any real S.O. information once he left on the _Ark_. I want to know how he suddenly knows something that, until now, we've been very successful in keeping it away from Jazz. Something that never made it onto the _Ark_. I want you to find out how Jazz knows about PEM, Blacksmoke, and how that piece of slag ruined my ultimate goal for PEM. He claims he saw Blacksmoke listed on a casualty list in another attack, but that's a lie. I made damn sure that Blacksmoke's name didn't appear in those reports."

"Got anything in mind?"

"Actually, I do." Vesicant switched the image output so Blue Bark could see what was on Vesicant's screen to follow along. He pulled up an old roster and two older reports. "You see this name?" Vesicant highlighted one of the names on the _Ark_'s departure roster. "And you see these reports? The report on the left is the original report that includes Blacksmoke's death. We intercepted it before it was seen by anyone, and the report on the right is after we changed it. As you can tell, all evidence of Blacksmoke has been removed. _That_ is a copy of the only official report on the attack." Vesicant paused for a moment to let Blue Bark study the two reports. "See something in common with the roster and the original report, but doesn't exist in the official one?"

"Yeah. The name Smokescreen."

* * *

**Chapter ****End **A/N Section:

Please review! I appreciate all feedback, from constructive criticism to love =)

A special thanks to Infinitechange and Nikkie2010!


	3. Chapter 3

******Chapter Start A/N Section:**

This chapter has a bit more OC stuff to keep the plot moving. Also, this may not be a universal term, so FYI, the term "person of interest" is legal phrasing for having a suspicion that a certain individual is guilty for something, but nothing concrete enough to be an actual suspect (usually police).

Unbeta'd.

* * *

After a grueling shift of mind-numbing boredom and a near-constant internal battle of not climbing his walls, Jazz was finally free. He was stuck on shift until Ironhide showed up, and it seemed that Ironhide decided to credit himself the extra time he spend on his last shift curtsey of Jazz, by showing up a joor late.

Jazz briskly walked to the Rec Room in search of social interaction. No one visited him in his office since there weren't any activities or complaints to file, or at least nothing worth a conversation with an on-duty officer. Stepping into the Rec Room Jazz searched around only to discover a few Autobots. At least one of them was Sideswipe. Jazz walked over to Sideswipe, who was sitting at a table with energon and watching the TV screen. "What's up?" Jazz greeted.

"Nothin' much. And I mean that." Sideswipe responded with a dry tone. "How I loathe monitor duty," the red twin grumbled.

"On the plus side, those who are on standby should be back by the time we start our next shifts. Then they're only off the regular shift schedule if they're needed on the project and that means a semi-regular schedule."

Sideswipe sarcastically chuckled. "Oh Jazzy, Jazzy – "

"Do _not _call me that."

"– you haven't heard the most recent word about this whole thing." Sideswipe continued, his voice perking up with fake happiness.

Jazz carefully watched him. "No, I've been alone in an office. ALL shift."

"Well then, let me fill you in!" Sideswipe said, continuing his fake cheeriness, complete with hand gestures. "Prime and his team didn't have the most bang up time working with the humans. Oh no, the humans want to keep progressing on schedule but then the humans asking questions keep make a full circle back to previous discussions for various reasons. That means half of those on standby are dedicated to the project for at least one Earth week because of the random repeats."

"Oh no. Who's covering security?"

"Dunno. Lucky for you, security is much later on the agenda. I'm pretty sure Prowl did that on purpose."

"Prowl's not in charge of that," Jazz pointed out.

"Nah, but apparently he did suggest the agenda and schedule and Prime just went with it and got the humans to agree with it."

'_Well, I guess I can thank Prowl that I don't have to worry about extra shifts for a while. Although, it's starting to annoy me just how much I don't know what Prowl's been doing. I mean really, why is it so hard to mention any of this when I ask him how things are going? I mean, that totally makes me look like a bad – uh, um…_' Jazz decided to abruptly halt the train of thought of "what are we?" and steer the conversation in another direction. "Well, at least with half of them joining the rest of us, that means we'll actually get to rotate and have an orn off."

Sideswipe nodded. "And a busier Rec Room, thank Primus. It is so dullsville in here. Hound had control of the TV and do you know what Hound was watching? A TV show about finding the cutest cat video! I mean, seriously, what is it with humans and cat videos?" Sideswipe shook his hands in the air exasperated.

"Aw, come on. You can't harp on it that much. Remember the videos flooding our internet before the war, back on Cybertron? Primus, the High Tower mechs and their turbo foxes. Even worse, their obsession spread to other cities. Worse than the humans and kittens."

"I totally disagree," Sideswipe returned. "I can't tell you how much kitten stuff I've seen when surfing their 'net. It's like number two to porn."

"Please tell me that you don't check the porn."

"Pit no! Ew!" The red warrior squirmed. "I'm not xenophobic or shy about a good interface, but their… no, just no." He shook his head to get the images out of his mind. "Back to the kittens. They show up everywhere because they're not censored, and now there's whole shows dedicated to them!"

"I'm sorry, Sideswipe, but you are so wrong. Ask Mirage and he'll tell you they had _channels _dedicated to turbo foxes. Channels!"

"The humans have what seems to be an infinite number of sites dedicated to the kittens." Sideswipe countered to defend his argument why the kitten video obsession was worse than the turbo fox obsession. Jazz and Sideswipe argued for half a joor about kittens versus turbo foxes until Mirage walked into the room. Both stopped and look at each other.

"I'm guessing we should drop the conversation before we make someone's feelings of homesickness worse?" Jazz quietly suggested.

"Yeah. 'Sides, all this conversation proved was that there's nothing to do." Sideswipe then added in a low, smug voice, "and my argument was winning. Kittens rule."

Jazz grunted his agreement before checking his chrometer. Those on the project were finally off, including Prowl. '_Well, Prowl will be leaving soon_,' Jazz silently corrected himself, knowing that Prowl wouldn't leave until everyone else was done and he could read up on their post committee hearing notes.

Within two breems the Rec Room became a lot busier and Jazz could feel the atmosphere of the room rapidly rising. Eager for some fun, Jazz got up as he grabbed his energon and started mingling with the group.

\~'~'~\

Defilade watched over the north wall's main entrance from his seat up top. As the dedicated Special Ops sniper, he usually had posts in the higher levels and away from everyone else. There were times the job was lonely, but luckily Defilade didn't have a strong need for company.

He snapped to attention when a perimeter sensor alerted him to an oncoming vehicle. Defilade crouched down and activated the targeting system built in his overlying visor. The view zoomed in a few times before Defilade could get a clear view of the approaching vehicle. '_Oh, it's just Blue Bark._' Defilade relaxed and leaned over his perch as Blue Bark pulled up to the entrance and stopped to transform. "Hey, Blue Bark," he called down.

The white mech looked up, his pale optics locking onto Defilade. Unlike Defilade, Blue Bark had no colored highlights and his paint job was largely intact. Currently his paint job was several different shades of matte white.

Like Defilade, Blue Bark was somewhat slimmer than other mechs, but not as slim as Defilade. As a sniper, Defilade needed to be able to fit into tight spots for potentially long periods of time. Blue Bark was a little bit different though. He needed to hold positions for a while, too, but his skill set and special capability gave him more flexibility for picking his positions.

"How's it going up there?" Blue Bark called out.

"Fine. I haven't been up here for too long," Defilade said back.

"You know that your definition of 'long' is a lot longer than most mechs," Blue Bark reminded him.

Defilade shrugged. "Not my fault if others have a shorter attention span than me, or can't handle lengthy solitude."

"And that's why you're a sniper and not them. Anyways, I gotta go talk to Vesicant. Later." Blue Bark gave him a small wave and started walking through the entrance but Defilade stopped him.

"Hey! I'm off in a few joors. Do you wanna join me for some training exercises then?" Defilade asked hopefully as he leaned far over the perch, trying to maintain optic contact at Blue Bark.

"Sure."

"Okay, I'll come find you then."

Blue Bark walked to the command center and found Azimuth at one of the monitors. He casually walked up to the monitor and leaned against it, looking at Azimuth. The multi deep-red and black colored mech ignored him as he typed away. Blue Bark waited until Azimuth stopped and looked at him. "Yes?"

"I'm guessing Ves already has you working on modifying those files Jazz requested?"

"Yeah?" Azimuth waited for Blue Bark to continue. When he didn't, Azimuth gave him a small glare. "What is your problem?"

"Nothin'. Just wanted to see if I was right." Blue Bark used his hip to push himself off the monitor. "I also need to talk to Ves and I figured whoever was working here would know where he is."

"Where in the pit do you think he is? He's in his Panic Room." Azimuth replied snippily before returning to his work and ignoring Blue Bark entirely.

'_Whatever_.' Blue Bark walked away and moved towards the quarters section, or, as he liked to call it, "The Shambles of Living." Blue Bark lived in the High Towers before the war and while he'd adjusted fairly well to living in war, he found living in quarters built from the crumbled remains to be sub-par even for war standards. The "Panic Room" was what he and the few others privy to knowing the real Vesicant called the extra room off of Vesicant's quarters. The room was basically a glorified walk-in closet but with a desk.

Blue Bark entered Vesicant's quarters after the 1LT's approval and walked into the Panic Room. It was Vesicant's space to work on whatever worried him without risking other mechs seeing it. Currently Vesicant was standing and leaning over his chair, intently looking at whatever was on his screen.

"What were your findings?" Vesicant demanded.

"Nothing that's going to help you. I can't find anything to suggest he told someone here what he knows. It looks like whatever Smokescreen knew he took with him on the _Ark_. That wouldn't be a big deal, except – "

"Except Jazz is with him and we know that he likely learned something from that Praxian," Vesicant finished for him with a growl. Vesicant straightened his back and cracked his neck. "That combined with the fact his report was a bit vaguer than I realized isn't helping." Right after the attack they determined that the original report didn't contain any key evidence involving Blacksmoke that could compromise Vesicant's activities. He kept the original report in a ghost directory but never give it a second thought after filing it away.

Now that cavalier attitude was coming back to bite him. Smokescreen stated that he was there to support another mech – one that he never specifically named. He said that his companion and he spoke to Blacksmoke once before the attack but the nature of the conversation wasn't given in great detail; the only detail, in fact, was that Blacksmoke was looking for an old friend who'd already passed. Vesicant initially didn't care since it sounded like Blacksmoke was dead before he could tell anyone anything, but apparently Blacksmoke told Smokescreen something because Jazz now knew something.

"So…" Blue Bark started, letting it hang there to get Vesicant's attention. Finally, Vesicant optics focused from internally contemplating his options back to the field specialist. "So, knowing you there's already a few plans you got up your wrist armor."

Azimuth joined them as he walked into the room and announced, "We've got a new problem."

Vesicant glared. "What now?" he snapped.

"I was going over Blacksmoke's profile to make sure there wasn't anything that could cause us future trouble," the red mech began, "when I noticed a small inconsistency. You know the 'Family' section in everyone's profile? The field is empty and it has been ever since I looked into it when Blacksmoke died, if not well before." He waited a moment to make sure the other two were following along. "However, upon digging deeper, I found that there's just the smallest bits of data that doesn't _quite _match in that section."

"Meaning?" Vesicant asked, his impatience growing.

"Meaning that someone modified a field that's _never_ modified after the original information is added. Well, unless the operative looses or gains a family after joining, and we all know that didn't happen."

"And?!" Vesicant demanded.

"_And _that conflicting code indicates that something was there and now isn't. I can't quite pin down the 'who' and 'when' it was changed, let alone the 'what.' Whoever did it was damn good. I have an idea on the 'who,' but he's dead so it's a mote point."

"What, you think Blacksmoke did it?" Blue Bark questioned. "He wasn't exactly known for his administrative abilities."

"No, but I seem to recall his very good friend, Jazz's first First Lieutenant, being an excellent hacker," Azimuth responded scathingly.

Vesicant huffed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "So let me see if I'm understanding our every-accumulating problems correctly: Blacksmoke had data in the 'Family' section that's now gone and can't be retrieved – which must mean something critical because there's no reason to hide such mundane information, and during PEM he killed his operative partner and abandoned their undercover mission for unknown reasons that lead to his death. Before he died he had at least two conversations with Smokescreen that we originally dismissed as irrelevant, but now Jazz's is back in touch and the first thing he does is ask questions. Questions that imply he knows something about our secret mission and cover up. Did I miss anything?"

"Yeah, they're on a distant planet and there's nothing on Cybertron to help us figure any of this out. Well, nothing I'm finding anyways. He was Praxian so maybe the 'Family' thing can be solved." Blue Bark looked at Azimuth.

"Do you really think the Praxian family records survived when the city was leveled? Wow, no wonder your Vesicant's field mech and not in any position that requires a high-level of thinking." Azimuth retorted.

"Hey, ever called of 'backing up'?'" Blue Bark shot back.

"Yes," Azimuth taunted, "and like all cities before that orn, they kept their backup city records on the _other_ _side_ of the city since they figured the worse that could happen is partial damaged to the city. Not total annihilation."

Immediately the two began to bicker. Vesicant tuned them out and looked back at his desk, datapads sprawled out with all the information he could gather. After a couple of breems, Vesicant turned back towards the pair. "Will you two shut up?"Blue Bark and Azimuth immediately ceased their bickering but Blue Bark gave Azimuth a small shove.

"Sparklings!" Vesicant admonished. He waited a moment before calmly continuing. "We don't have as much information as we need, but we know that those who have it are not the mechs we want to have it. We know that at least two of our… 'mechs of interest'… are on the planet Earth and we don't have the means of reaching it. We know that Jazz knows that Blacksmoke was running away from something. Here's the plan: we need to discredit Blacksmoke and make sure it looks like he was running away to cover his skin plating. That way if Jazz survives, the evidence points to Blacksmoke being the culprit."

"What do you mean _if _Jazz survives?" Blue Bark asked.

The barest hint of a smile showed on Vesicant's face as he told them his plans. At the end of it, Blue Bark and Azimuth looked at each other and then back at Vesicant. The 1LT could see some hesitation on Azimuth's face, but he knew Azimuth's sense of loyalty and guilt would keep him in check.

Blue Bark just looked awe-stricken and voiced his thoughts. "Wow that is evil. I mean, that is Shockwave-worthy evil, which is appropriate given it involves him, albeit without his knowledge. It's going to terminate a lot of sparks. The nicest thing – and I'm using that term as loosely as possible – about this plan is that you aren't deliberately planning to terminate Jazz; it's just likely he might be in the wrong place at the wrong time. You have, like, _THE worst _sense of hero-complex I have ever seen. Not to mention this is all because you have cover your aft because of what you did and because you despise the idea of losing your own unchecked power if he starts regularly working with Cybertron again." Blue Bark privately added, '_Control freak._'

"I do not have a hero complex." Vesicant huffed icily, to which Blue Bark quietly disagreed. "Now you both have assignments. Azimuth, keep working on those reports and make sure that the files are well modified. Jazz may not have your level of skills to figure out what you've done, but there's no telling if he can and will bring in someone who does. Blue Bark, retrieve the target from Blacksmoke's last mission."

\*'*'*\

Smokscreen walked into the Rec Room towards the energon dispenser but he was stopped a few steps short when Jazz grabbed his attention. "What's up Jazz?"

"I take it you're all done?"

"Yup. We're all done for the evening. Prowl and Prime are wrapping up the final stuff now so we can get things done a lot more quickly at the next meeting, which is in roughly 18 Earth hours. They don't like the idea of regular duties operating at 63% capacity, with the remaining 37% on that project. Prowl wants us to reduce the number down to 25% sooner rather than later."

"Well, let them know that if there's anything I can do, just say it. The more mechs we have on the regular schedule, the more fun I get to have."

"I will, but I highly doubt the Head of Special Ops can do anything on a project that doesn't have a single offense strategy or secret mission."

Jazz shrugged, not letting on that he actually was working on a secret mission of sorts. "Wanna sit down and chat?"

"Sure, but I got a game with Sideswipe in a joor."

"Uh huh." Jazz said with a small laugh and Smokescreen merely grinned as he finished his original task by grabbing some energon.

"So got anything in mind?" Smokescreen asked as they sat down.

"Actually, yeah. Prowl and I were talking a little while back and Blacksmoke came up. I know you said that he was looking for someone and was kind of freaked out when he was told that Juniper was already dead. Was that all of it?"

Smokescreen shrugged. "I told you everything. He was staring at Prowl, I tried to get him to leave, it led to a trash talking contest between him and me, me initially thinking he was stalking Prowl, and then it ended in a fight. He was pretty freaked out when I said Juniper was dead, like it was the worst thing he could've heard right then. He didn't say why, but if I had to guess, he was short on either time or options."

"Or both," Jazz added sourly.

"Yeah, could be any and all of the above," the strategist agreed. "It ended when Prowl intervened and separated us. Blacksmoke couldn't bring himself to actually say anything to Prowl. Next thing I know, he saves Prowl's life and dies saying 'at least I didn't fail my son.' Not really sure what he meant. Prowl and I finally talked about a deca-orn ago and he wasn't sure either. He figured that Blacksmoke probably meant that at least Prowl didn't fall apart after Blacksmoke left the family. Although Prowl admitted that doesn't entirely make sense. Could just be the semi-incoherent ramblings of a dying mech."

"I doubt we'll ever really know," Jazz said absently as he thought about what his search. It really was strange behavior, between Blacksmoke's reaction to learning about his long-lost friend death and his final words. Maybe if he kept those questions in mind, something would leap up at him during his research when he got those reports. It was still a shot in the dark but maybe it would stick to something that could paint a faint picture.

Prowl emerged from the door and appeared to be deciding whether or not to partake in the festivities or just leave and head back to his office. Smokescreen saw on his brother's face a resolution to head back. "Yo, Prowl!" Smokescreen yelled before the tactician had a chance to escape. His hand shot up to flag his brother. "Grab a cube and tell me all about it!"

Jazz leaned over. "Psst… what's 'it'?"

"Dunno, but there's always an 'it.' I get so much info from mechs by simply asking about 'it.'"

Prowl hesitated but ultimately decided to make his way over to them. "I don't require any," he stated in lue of a normal greeting. "I refueled during my last break and I don't require additional energon in such a short time span."

"Yeah, okay," Smokescreen said without particularly caring. "So how was it?"

"The post committee recap showed that the accepted agreements between the humans and us were largely beneficial. However, much remains due to the frequent circling back. I'm not sure why they insist on this manner of proceeding."

Smokescreen laughed. "Not everyone is continuously looking for the most effective and efficient manner based on on-going performance. Usually most look back to make better decisions for the future."

"That's an illogically inefficient approach."

Smokescreen snickered as he caught Sideswipe waving him over from the corner of his optic. "If you'll both excuse me, I have a pre-existing arrangement that decided to move up the time."

For a moment Jazz thought to ask him but he decided against it in favor of turning his attention to Prowl. "So Prowl, how ya feeling? Tired yet? I know you prefer military issues over political ones."

"Yes, but they overlap," Prowl said with slight exasperation. "This is Prime's area, not mine. There were times I felt completely bored while other times I wanted nothing more than to leap forward and throttle the ignorant committee member asking questions clearly meant to show he/she had power, at least in his/her mind."

"Yeah, I hear you there," Jazz said, eager to use his phrase code for spending time together in his quarters.

Prowl gave him an incredulous look but remained silent since he couldn't say exactly what was on his mind. Instead he gave a weak response, "I don't think you do. You stay away from these types of affairs."

'_Oh no you don't_,' Jazz secretly challenged. "No, I think I know _exactly _what these things are like. You've never seen me in action during… _heated_… meetings," Jazz said with a small trace of seduction in his voice as he reached out and lightly brushed Prowl's hand under the table. Prowl reciprocated by jerking his hand away just enough to smack Jazz's hand down. Jazz turned the tables back on Prowl buy using the reaction to his advantage. "I'm sorry, Prowl. I'm just a bit jittery with lots of energy. I haven't been able to do anything since the start of my shift. I have so much energy to burn off but I need to have some fun, too. Prowl, can you think of anything fun that could burn off energy?" Jazz struggled to hide his coy smile but he could feel the corners of his mouth failing.

There was one major problem when Jazz played these games in a public area, however. "Hey, Jazz!" Bumblebee called, startling Jazz. The Porsche turned around to find the yellow bug standing behind him. "Why are you asking Prowl that? Some of us are planning a video game tournament. Care to join?"

"Oh, that does sound fun, 'Bee…" Jazz rapidly searched for an answer that wouldn't raise suspicious nor hurt the young mech's feelings. He could see Prowl smirking. "But I need to burn energy after being cooped up at a desk for so long. A video game tournament just isn't enough when you have enough energy to climb the walls and dance on the ceiling. Sitting around so I challenge someone for a breem at a time won't entirely solve my problem. Thanks anyways." He patted Bumblebee on the shoulder as an added effort to not hurt the mech's feelings.

"It's okay. Another time, 'k?" Bumblebee headed back to the group waiting to start.

Jazz turned back to Prowl and raised an optic ridge to say 'well?' Prowl smiled pleasantly as he spoke, "Like Bumblebee said, why are you asking me?"

Jazz stared at him and huffed before getting up and walking away. A few steps later he heard Prowl remark, "Me, I could use a quiet evening, but you enjoy your energy-burning, fun-filled one."

\~'~'~\

Ten breems later Jazz was standing quietly by his door, waiting for Prowl. He wanted to surprise Prowl and jump him, for once more literally than sexually, for doing that to him. Prowl knew that Jazz was struggling a bit with their pace, maybe not as much as Jazz was struggling in reality, but that was just cruel. Letting Jazz get all fired up before rejecting him, followed by using his code for accepting Jazz's offer while the saboteur was stomping away. '_Absolutely cruel. I'll get him back – right now._'

There was a faint knock on his door and immediately Jazz gave the command for the door to open as he crouched in the darkened corner. He kept the lights very dim. Prowl expressed as much as he walked into the room and the doors closed. "Jazz, why is it so dark?"

"Because of this!" Jazz leaped and jumped on Prowl's back, contorting his body as he landed to avoid the doorwings, and used his weight to force Prowl to fall forward.

"Omph! What the pit, Jazz?" Prowl tried twisting around but Jazz used his legs to pinch Prowl's torso's sides so he couldn't rotate. He used his full body weight to pin Prowl face down and leaned into Prowl's audio receiver.

"What do you think? Don't mess with me, Prowl, because I'm like _this close _to using a combo of high grade energon and seduction on you."

"I'm noticing that," Prowl said carefully. Jazz paused and realized how his voice had started turning sultry and that his engine had started revving up beyond what it should've been if was only a simple game. Jazz rolled off to keep it from getting worse.

There was an awkward silence between the two of them before Prowl finally spoke. "Perhaps high grade wouldn't be so bad."

"Seriously?" Jazz stared in disbelief at the usually uptight, high-grade-banning mech.

Prowl focused hard on not fidgeting. "Listen, Jazz, this isn't even close to being my first time, but it has been a while since I've had any interface and even longer since I've been with someone who mattered. Interfacing just to get it out of your system is one thing, but interfacing with someone who means something is entirely different."

"Yeah, I see where you're coming from." Jazz propped himself up while Prowl sat up straight. They hadn't had truly discussed either issue Prowl brought up. It was leaving Jazz uncomfortable since he never had to have either conversations; things just sort of fell in place for him because his partners were always like him and they synced together without needing words.

Jazz considered the possibility. '_I could easily get a hold of Sideswipe's or Smokescreen's high grade. Primus, if they ever knew the reason why I was grabbing it. Still, even if we involve high grade…_' Jazz looked at his berth before absently speaking aloud, "… there's still a problem with the berth."

"Excuse me?"Prowl asked, thrown off from the lack of spoken transition.

"Uh? Oh sorry. I was just thinking that unless you're cool with the floor, it's going to hard to have some fun while sober on a standard issued berth, let alone drunk. Same problem with the couch. Sometimes I curse your doorwings."

"Then you need to get on that, especially so you can stop cursing my doorwings and liking them." Prowl said with a little bit of a teasingg undertone, pushing himself. It was all too easy for Prowl to put the brakes on, but harder for him to hit the gas pedal.

Jazz chuckled before leaning in and giving Prowl a heated kiss. "I'll get right on it."

\~'~'~\

A filthy and tired Blue Bark returned after what felt like deca-orns, but in reality was only slightly over half an orn. He dragged himself towards the North entrance, carrying a package tightly tucked in his arms.

"Blue Bark!"

Blue Bark looked up and saw Defilade looking over the North entrance perch. He gave the sharpshooter a quizzical look. "Weren't you off a while ago?"

"Yeah, but there's nothing to do so I figured I'd stay here longer and now someone owes me a favor."

"What about the training exercises?"

"That's only so fun by yourself and I thought I'd wait for your return so you could keep your promise."

"Oh, uh yeah." Blue Bark looked himself over, originally planning on a trip to the cleaning racks. '_Ah, screw it._' Blue Bark tilted his head back up. "Yeah, sure. I'm already filthy anyways. Meet you at the South end when your shift's over?"

"Works for me. There's only a little over a joor left."

"Cool." Blue Bark headed into the building, once again searching for Versicant. Although he was already tired and hungry he decided to grab some energon on his way out to meet Defilade. It would be nice to put his mind elsewhere and stop feeling anxious about carrying a package he was deathly afraid to drop.

"Got the target, or rather targeted object." Blue Bark announced as he entered Vesicant's room. "Please tell me you have an area to work on this so if you screw up, the entire base doesn't die. Aerosol chemical warfare isn't exactly easily contained _after _it gets free."

Vesicant rolled his optics. "Yes, I updated my lab for exactly this."

"You have a lab? Here?"

"I always have a lab. My specialties are rendered useless without one."

"True. I just didn't know."

"That's kind of the point," Vesicant drawled. "I prefer my labs to be low profile, and that's why no one will know who's involved in this because a secret lab pretty much nullifies any chance of someone putting this together. If anyone comes across it then it won't mean much because everyone knows my specialty is in chemicals, and the lack of attention I've brought to it, combined with my lack of work beyond my office, indicates that I'm not using it. Plus no one will dare walk into my chem. lab and snoop because, well, it's a Special Ops chem. lab."

"I know I wouldn't. Should we head straight there?"

"I'll head straight there by myself. There are items in there that I wouldn't want you to bump."

"Geez!" Blue Bark exclaimed at the idea there was already secret deadly chemicals in the base. He looked at the package briefly before eagerly passing it off to Vesicant. Relieved that it was no longer his responsibility to not drop it, he grumbled at Vesicant, "You know, there was a reason why we left it after Blacksmoke demolished the only way in and out."

"No, I've always wanted it but I didn't know if it had been released."

"Hold up – you ordered me to go into a confined area without being certain I wouldn't die?"

"I was mostly certain, if that helps. I knew enough time had passed that, if it had been released, it would've dissipated and probably returned back into its liquid state. Either case you could bring it back."

"So long as I wasn't dead," Blue Bark said with some bitterness.

Vesicant sighed. "I don't have time for this. I knew you had a very high probability of not being effected at all, and even if you did it would've been early on enough that you would have enough strength back to block it off and call for help. Now excuse me, but I need to get to my lab and work on this quickly."

Blue Bark allowed Vesicant to leave, giving him an angry look behind his back. He left and grabbed some energon as he waited for Defilade's shift to end.

\~'~'~\

Jazz stepped into his office so he could make a call to Cybertron and discuss matters with his Cybertron-stationed team. This time it was Vesicant who answered himself. "Hello, Jazz."

"Hi Vesicant. I thought I might be speaking with Defilade, given that's what I ordered. I haven't received any of the information I've requested. You know, the files on the Pathway: Echo mission and the operative. I wanted Def to provide them to me."

"He should have it ready well within your two orn deadline," Vesicant said matter-of-factly. "The facility sent us the file just a few breems ago so we're putting it all together in a comprehensible file."

"Alright, I'll accept that if you're right. In the mean time, let's discuss the other issue. How's the mission going with the medical equipment?"

"Largely successful. There's only one item on the list left to retrieve."

"That's great," Jazz praised. He was glad to hear things were on schedule to returning back to normal for the _Ark_, which was the as-soon-as-possible schedule. "Do you have an expected delivery date? Or rather, do you have a delivery plan and when do you plan to execute it?"

"I have a few plans, but I need an extra two orns to finalize the plans. Hopefully then we can send the equipment to you within the following orn," Vesicant stated.

"Three orns? Is there any way to cut that down without risking anyone's safety?"

Vesicant considered the request. "I can probably have everything finished and ready to go in an orn and a half, but that's as fast as I'm comfortably willing to cut down to. We may be able send the equipment at the end of the second orn."

"Alright, that's acceptable. Not ideal for us here, but neither is losing anyone over there. Do your plans have anything that would help if I knew it now?"

"Yes," Vesicant answered. "The only real option is to use Shockwave's space bridge. You may want to have plans in motion that allow your team to quickly mobilize when we do, because any bridge activity will be met by the Decepticons on your end."

Jazz's mouth twist in disappointment, but not at Vesicant. He was uncertain how he'd go about preplanning an attack without letting the wrong mechs in on it – aka the mechs who'd tell Prime, who might bring everything to a halt and order them to follow the safer, significantly slower route instead. Some mechs would agree to help Jazz and maintain the secrecy, but not enough to quickly mobilize a team to stop Megatron and save the equipment before it could be stolen. It was a matter he'd have to deal with no matter what happens since Vesicant was right about it being the only true option. "Alright. Keep me up-to-date."

"Will do," Vesicant promised before cutting out his transmission.

Jazz considered his options of who he could tell. There were a few mechs who'd do anything under an officer's nose, and a few officers had already expressed frustration with the process. Ironhide and Ratchet would be easily persuaded to take the quicker option to a finished Medbay. Prowl would agree to help since he's the one who suggested finding an alternate source, although Prowl wouldn't be happy about forming a plan completely contingent on someone else's plans. '_Maybe some high grade will help_,' Jazz thought cheekily. '_Oh, and that berth. Now let's see who's holding down the fort in supplies… please be someone I like or someone I can work with. Hmm, Bluestreak. Well that makes things easier – well, if he doesn't feeling blabby._'

\~'~'~\

Vesicant withdrew from the console and Blue Bark stepped out from behind the computer. "Why the extra time?" Blue Bark asked. "I thought you said your modifications to the chemical's atomic structure were complete."

"They are complete but there needs to be a trial run. Do you recall your mission to far ruins of Kaon's outer limits?"

Blue Bark's optics widen, both with shock and excitement. "Yeah, but it's heavily guarded and it's always been beyond our capabilities of launching a potentially successful attack. Are you planning to use your new creation to eliminate Shockwave's crew for his backup spacebridge? If that's the case, why don't we just use that to send the medical equipment and circumvent having to make a run on Shockwave's home turf?"

Vesicant chuckled. "I do plan to test the chemical there but you know that I ultimately need Shockwave. I have another plan for the backup bridge."

* * *

******Chapter Start A/N Section:**

1) Cutest cat video is a real show.

2) My sequel summary may say Prowl's life is in danger, but I never said only Prowl's life would be in danger :P I'm just building up to it.


End file.
